Sherrod Sports Visas wins another Federal Lawsuit against USCIS, and USCIS/DHS responds with harassing messages to industry leaders in combat sports.

April 6, 2023

Sherrod Sports Visas is proud to announce the reopening of a denied case for LFG Boxing was litigated and reopened by USCIS Vermont Service Center on March 27. 

P-1 Denial Notice for World Class Boxer by the USCIS Vermont Service Center

P-1 Litigation filing notice against Vermont Service Center

Case Reopen Notice for Case After Filing Lawsuit

Second successful federal litigation for combat sports P-1 Visa

This P-1 litigation is the second case we have litigated with USCIS on the issue that independent combat sports fighters do not have to show opponents, dates, and locations for multiple years to obtain P-1 visa status. 

Information on the first case we won against the California Center last year - 

https://www.prweb.com/releases/2022/12/prweb19050720.htm

In response to this litigation, USCIS is issuing letter verifications to persons that supported our general efforts to explain the industry of combat sports by signing this petition - www.oaklg.com/combatsportspetition

This letter is about the combat sports industry in general and presented as evidence for explaining the combat sports industry in general. Ignoring this, USCIS is sending messages to persons that sign this letter asking about specific organizations and fighters that have nothing to do with the letter or the purpose of the context in which it presents itself.

Here is an example of the USCIS DHS Letter Verification Notice Sent to Unsuspecting Supporters of the Letter

This tactic by USCIS either further displays poor comprehension or is deceptive by making people think they issued a letter for a particular fighter or organization. These letters present information for the general education of combat sports, and the details are below.

The Goal of Litigation against USCIS for Combat Sports Industry

We aim to make it USCIS adjudication standards for fighters ranked in the top 650 in the world to have the assumption that the leading combat sports promoters in the United States highly covet them. 

We were excited to file a lawsuit in this case for two important reasons to the industry. 

This case featured the USCIS adjudicating office's failure to discern an event that is streaming on UFC Fight Pass from the actual Ultimate Fighting Championship events (even after careful explanation). 

Please see this information from the denial notice on this case:

First, this information in the denial notice is not true because there was an interest letter provided by the general management of the promotion itself, and the letter obviously did not assert that the BOXER (not even a mixed martial artist) is competing in the UFC itself. The litigation issue pointed out in great detail how this portion of the denial was an egregious fundamental misunderstanding of how combat sports works.

Furthermore, the litigation also included letters from a signature petition we provided to the industry to support industry norms and avoid itinerary issues with USCIS. These letters were gathered by industry leaders that signed this petition via e signature ( www.oaklg.com/combatsportspetition) 

Here is an example of the invitation to sign the letter: 

Please share this with your network!

We are corresponding with you and hundreds of other stakeholders in combat sports for a very important purpose; Athletes, promotion companies and managers around the world are suffering from inconsistent adjudications and the fundamental misunderstanding of the combat sports industry by adjudicating officers at the United States Immigration & Citizenship Services ("USCIS").


Two years and a half years ago, we made a memo (link here) to shed light on how the growing trends that USCIS misunderstanding of the combat sports industry was impacting the flow of talent to the United States. Last year, we were able to prove many of our points in federal court through litigation (link to complaint and press release below).

(image and link to complaint - 5-25-22 COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF-merged-compressed.pdf        (Link and image to press release - https://www.prweb.com/releases/2022/12/prweb19050720.htm)

After months of consistent adjudications, we are again noticing an uptick in poor analysis and decision making from USCIS. This letter and petition serves to demonstrate and educate adjudicating officers the industry practices and common knowledge terminology around the world of combat sports. We are including examples of USCIS officers misapplying adjudication standards and misunderstanding how combat sports work in various requests for evidence and decisions. The purpose of circulating this letter among combat sports stakeholders is to obtain consistent adjudication for the entire industry. Everyone wins when USCIS is making fair and common-sense decisions. 

Please support the combat sports industry by participating in this petition to USCIS by electronically executing our petition letter. 


link to petition: www.oaklg.com/combatsportspetition

These letters were then included in petitions for P-1 visas as GENERAL explanation of how the combat sports industry works:
Here is the language in the petition that introduces the combat industry support letters:

CLARIFICATION FOR INDUSTRY STANDARD PRACTICES IN COMBAT SPORTS

To assist USCIS with making consistent adjudications of combat sports petitions. We have collected statements and letters from combat sports industry leaders from around the world to help USCIS understand how the industry works. Also, these letters contain information about combat sports industry stakeholders of both promoters, managers, and regulatory bodies that confirms the industry requires a ready pool of internationally ranked athletes to fill fight cards. 

Specifically, these letters of support all explain and confirm the following about industry standard practices and requirements for combat sports itineraries. 

  1. It is industry standard for fighters to be tasked with obtaining their own visas. Thus, the fighter would have to use projected itineraries to obtain the visas to actually get the bouts.

  2. It is industry standard for the athlete, especially agent directed athletes, to use the projected schedules of promotions (using the previous year’s schedule as predicting the current schedule).

  3. The combat sports promotions not only have no issue with fighter’s using their projected to schedule to obtain P-1 visas, but the industry absolutely depends on fighters receiving these P-1 visas with the promoter’s contemplated in the itinerary, so they have the proper authorization to compete in the bouts

  4. It is impossible to know exact dates and locations of fighters in combat sports. This is industry standard because this is a fast moving sport. It is industry standard to base the forthcoming schedule based on the events from the previous year.

  5. In general, fighters that are ranked at least 650th in the world and have proper work authorization are always highly coveted to fill fight cards. In fact, domestic fighters suffer if there is not a ready pool of talent to compete against to raise their own rankings. 

  6. Agent Directed Athletes choose the best opportunity at the time to compete. So they could, and should, have multiple options on the table of where to compete so that the best matchup, compensation, and leverage can be utilized at THAT POINT in time. There is no requirement for athletes to compete in every single event that is listed on their itineraries. This is industry standard for Agent Directed Athletes to have multiple options contemplated on their itinerary so that the Agent can direct them to compete in the best opportunity on any given day. This is standard and makes common sense. 

  7. This information is provided with consent from the authors of these letters

To support USCIS understanding of these combat sports industry practices, we present letters of explanation from the following industry stakeholders

USCIS Deceptive Tactics and Retaliation to Lawsuit 

The combat sports support letters do not concern any specific organization or fighter. Nor does the context of the introduction of these letters involve any particular organization or fighter. 

Yet, not only is USCIS harassing the supporters of the letter by contacting them directly in the first place, they are being extremely deceptive by asking questions to deceive the writers about the context or purpose of the letter. 


The questions posed by USCIS Letter Verification Team -

Does your organization do business with One Championship?

Are you aware of Mr. Juarez Tabares as a Mixed Martial Arts athlete?

Neither of these questions has anything to do with the purpose of these letters, and we find this behavior deceptive and invasive practices. 

In response, we will be organizing to bring attention to this matter and use it to help obtain consistent and fair adjudication of visas that concern combat sports. 

Please stay tuned for more details. For inquiries, please contact jenwenkpr@gmail.com